2014 sees the beginning of a series of centenaries marking the First World War.

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) can provide funds to help you mark these important anniversaries by exploring the history and legacy of the war and helping people understand is impact on communities across the UK.

Please click here for more information.

A collection of more than 2,800 ‘Cadet End of Term Report Sheet’ have been digitised, transcribed and added to the site.

These records contain such details as:

• Name of Cadet
• Date/Term
• And comments from the Company Commander with regards to the Cadet in relation to:
  • Ability
  • Conduct
  • Characteristics
  • General Remarks

The reports make very interesting reading.  Some comments regarding the Cadet’s Characteristics:

“He is inclined to overestimate his ability and express his opinion a little too freely.  He has otherwise made good progress and shows promise.”

“Failed last term but has worked hard this term and will do very well.”

“He is keen and above average at his work.  Shows distinct signs of determination and a sense of discipline.  Is a bit handicapped & indifferent…”

“A slow but good worker.  Always alert.  Has commonsense and will make a good Officer.”

“Takes care in his work.  Has worked well.  Really good sportsman.  A useful AGO.  Good in parade with a good sense of duty.”

You can search these records at http://archive.sandhurstcollection.org.uk/ (look for Type = Term Report).

We are always looking to add new content to the Sandhurst Collection website so please continue to keep an eye on it!

You can read further information about the Sandhurst Collecton website here.

The collection of 350 photographic prints illustrate the history of the Borough Road College, a predecessor college to the University, showing officers and sporting teams over a period from 1895 to 1948.

‘The main drivers for digitising the collection,’ said Mandy Mordue, Head of Archives at Brunel, ’were, in the first instance, to preserve the photographs themselves, and then to make them more accessible and available for a recent exhibition.’…

Read more…

Due to company growth we are currently looking for people with the following skills to work from our picturesque studios in Kettering, Northamptonshire:

• PHP/MYSQL Web Developer
• Sales Consultant
• Office/Admin Assistant

Please refer to our website for full job descriptions:

www.townswebarchiving.com/recruitment

Please forward covering letter and CV to:

recruitment@townswebarchiving.com

Royal Leicestershire Regiment Website

The Royal Leicestershire Regiment was founded in 1688 and served with distinction around the world until being merged into The Royal Anglian Regiment in 1964.

The Regimental Trustees wanted to make some major changes to the management of  their existing databases of soldier and medal records, which could not be updated by themselves.

Therefore it was imperative to encourage and open up other forms of contact and mechanisms for accessing their growing archive through technology and the Internet.

The Regimental Trustees had previously met TownsWeb Archiving Ltd (TWA) through the Army Museums Ogilby Trust (AMOT), and had seen some of the work that they had undertaken for other regiments and were interested to see how TWA might be able to help them…

Read more…

After scanning the Cemeteries records, TownsWeb, working with Kingston’s IT team, designed and developed the burial records search pages, providing remote public access online to search records and download pages.

Re-visit this project, and see how TownsWeb can help you and your business:

http://www.townswebarchiving.com/clients-case-studies/cemeteries-crematorium/digitisation-transcription-online-searches-of-cemetery-records/

The Heritage Lottery Fund has just agreed an increased budget for new awards in 2012-13 of £375m. This budget represents an increase of £120m over their

2011-2012 budget and is made possible by the increase in the heritage share of good cause income to 20% in April 2012, and continuing record ticket sales.

A number of other changes will also be introduced, with a strategic plan for 2013-19, which will be launched next May.

More detail and finalised budgets for 2012-2013 will be announced in the spring.

Other changes include :

HLF will be introducing a number of changes to programmes which respond to customer feedback and help manage business even more effectively, from April 2012:

• Committees will take local decisions on more Heritage Grants applications – up to the value of £2m (currently £1m).
• The upper limit for Your Heritage grants will be increased to £100,000 (from £50,000).
• The upper limit for Young Roots grants will be increased to £50,000 (from £25,000). It will also support projects engaging a wider age range of young people (from 11 – 25 years old) and the maximum length of a project will be increased to two years.

They will introduce single stage Heritage Grants applications by exception when there is an urgent external deadline, for example on partnership funding.

For further information on changes :

http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/programmes/Pages/Informationforapplicants2012.aspx

For further information on how to apply for Heritage lottery funding :

http://www.hlf.org.uk/HowToApply/Register/Pages/registerandapply.aspx

Its recommendation on digitisation and digital preservation states that the UK should “pool their resources” in digitising cultural material.

The UK have also been urged to adopt national strategies to ensure long-term preservation of digital materials, increasing the number of cultural objects available online.

Targets for each member state have also been set, with the UK called on to digitise 3.9 million objects over the next four years.

You can read more about this on the Museum Association website.

This fascinating set of old aerial images were found within the archives of the Councils Planning Department.

They show striking redevelopment images of the town centre and the outskirts of Wigan in the years just after the Second World War.

Members of the public can now view these images FREE of charge and have the option to purchase prints via the WLCT website.

Aerial photograph of Newtown, Wigan, 1948

WLCT’s Alex Miller said “The images were all donated to us by Wigan Council and came from their planning department. They form a small collection in their own right, we think relating to large scale planning for redevelopment and slum clearances in the years after the Second World War.  As these came to us through planning they were a good collection to put online to raise awareness within the council departments about archival preservation more generally, especially at a time of change within the Council when records can easily be lost; added to which, aerial photographs are always popular with the public.”

“We took advice from various staff members and volunteers about locating the images within the borough, and they were publicised in the Council Magazine.”

TownsWeb Archiving Ltd digitised and placed online the first 5,000 images from WLCT’s photographic archive and now run their website.  TownsWeb also handle the orders for prints via the site, printing and despatching photographs directly to the customer on behalf of WLCT.  More information about this project can be found on the Clients pages of the TownsWeb Archiving website.

See: http://www.aim-museums.co.uk/images/uploads/Funding%20Sources.pdf